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The Great Northern Railroad
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by nanaimo73</i> <br /><br />[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by futuremodal</i> <br />[br However, one simple project seemed to have been overlooked, and that would have been to build a new 30 mile 1% cut-off line from Silver City MT (on the ex GN Butte line between Great Falls and Helena) to the east portal of Mullan Tunnel. This simple project would have concievably allowed the new BN to either embargo or abandon both the entire GN Marias Pass line from Havre to Sandpoint ID, and the NP Bozeman Pass line from Helena to Billings, consolidating all westbound traffic at Great Falls and all eastbound traffic at Spokane through a single corridor. [/quote] <br /> <br />Dave, <br />I believe the ex GN Great Falls to Helena line is closed due to unstable ground south of Great Falls. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Yes, that's correct, although "unstable ground" under other parts of the BNSF system doesn't seem to result in indefinate closures. The GF-Helena line is closed because it is currently superfluous to BNSF's operations, and as part of the I-15 corridor BNSF has the keys to this gateway, and they ain't gonna open it for UP/CP's sake. <br /> <br />BNSF likes to exaggerate things like washouts and such that occur on embargoed lines, because then the "exorbitant costs" of rebuilding such washed-out sections makes getting an abandoment rubber stamp from the STB that much easier. <br /> <br />I personally hiked the several sections of such washouts a few years ago on BN's ex-Spokane to Lewiston line, and the news accounts of what it would take to restore those sections did not jive with what I actually saw. I could've filled those "washouts" myself in a day or two with a shovel and wheelbarrow, and I could have done so for far less than the "millions" of dollars BNSF said it would take to repair those sections.
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